Ken Charman, managing director of Necho UK Ltd, says the Paddocks car park in Elms Road, near to the district council's Shute End offices, is a "crime-ridden site" and wants CCTV, parking attendants and barriers installed to deter vandals.

He is incensed that he was asked to fill in a business security survey by Wokingham District Council last week, while crime is taking place "under (the council's) nose".

The crime reduction survey was sent out last month from the Business Crime Group — part of the Wokingham Community Safety Partnership — which council chief executive Jane Earl chairs.

"My customers and I have been victims of vandalism and vehicle crime because of the Paddock car park," he said.

"My car was broken into in March and it's a disruption to my business as staff and customers have to park at the other end of town," he said.

"This crime-ridden site has been occupied for the second time by travellers — my wife stepped on toilet paper with human excrement on it the other day.

"The council's car park at Shute End has CCTV, barriers protecting entry, and council staff do not even pay to use it, but the public are paying £2.80 a day in a theme park for criminals.

"It's hypocritical that the chief executive Jane Earl is leaving the council to become a crime buster because the council does nothing to deter crime here — it's going on under her nose in the council's own car park."

Reading with Wokingham police say there have been 93 incidents at the Paddocks car park since its records started in July 1996, to its most recent incident last Thursday.

These include theft from vehicles, criminal damage to vehicles, stolen cars, arson, and several thefts from parking meters.

Ms Earl said: "Thefts of and from cars is one of our fastest growing types of crime in the Wokingham district and our community safety strategy focuses on cutting this as one of our key targets.

"We are certainly not complacent about car crime in the Paddocks car park — there are regular patrols there by our car parking attendants, who report anything suspicious to the police.

"We will shortly be cutting back trees, bushes, plants and undergrowth there to improve visibility.

"We also have an empty car campaign which is promoted in the car park, encouraging motorists not to leave valuables on show to reduce opportunist crime.

"Closed circuit television is being introduced in Wokingham town centre as a pilot project and we will be investigating the impact of this on crime reduction before deciding whether to extend it into other areas, such as car parks."